so made are only available for the future, and consid-
ering also how impossible it is to foresee with any ap-
proach to certainty in what districts they may be
eventually most needed, it appears the safer course
to make them general. It must be recollected that
in a new country the population continues for a
long time shifting. The present centres of popu-
lations may, and many of them probably will, in
the course of a few years give place to more
favoured localities, and that, under these circum-
stances, to tie up the properties for the benefit of
districts which now appear to require them most,
but might when they came into value require
them least, would have the effect of making the one
disproportionately rich, while the other would be alto-
gether destitute.

It is hardly necessary, in discussing the question
of finance, to take into account a source of revenue
which in England forms a very considerable item—
private benefactions. As a general rule and so far
as past experience goes, such benefactions can only
be relied upon here for occasional help. Still it
would not be advisable altogether to ignore them, or
to neglect any measures calculated to encourage the
liberality of individuals. The only plan by which
this could be done at present, appears to be by appro-
priating a certain portion of the funds available for
education, as contributions on the part of the Govern-
ment towards undertakings to be mainly dependent
upon voluntary efforts. This plan, while fostering
a spirit of self-reliance which might eventually pro-
duce very valuable results, would not in the mean-
time inflict upon those in whom such a spirit did not
exist the full penalty of their ignorance and apathy.

As regards the control of the funds, it is suggested
that the local committees should have full power
over the expenditure of those allotted to their res-
pective district; that all payments should be
made direct to the persons performing the
services out of the Provincial Treasury, on
a requisition from the local committees, counter-
signed by the Board. This latter provision seems
necessary, in order to enable the Board to see that
all engagements of which it is cognizant made by
the local committees, such as the payment of the
salary of a teacher, are faithfully carried out. Ex-
isting engagements once satisfied, any requisition by
a local committee should be passed as a matter of
course, the Board not being allowed any control
beyond the enforcement of this necessary condition
over funds once dedicated to the services of a par-
ticular district.

A scheme of finance based upon the principles
here sketched out would, it is conceived, wherever
the ground is not yet occupied, be the one best cal-
culated to place the education of the province on a
sure and permanent footing; it would regulate the
distribution of the funds, for the most part accord-
ing to well-defined and well-understood rules, while
that portion the mode of distribution of which was
not prescribed beforehand, would not be distributed
at the caprice of the Board, but by a formal vote of
the Provincial Council, on a full consideration by
that body of the claims of the different districts.

The plan here proposed, however, contemplating
as it does, a territorial division, could not be adapted,
in its integrity to a system founded on denomina-
tional distinctions, such as that under which the
existing schools have been established. The ordi-
nance lately passed by the Provincial Council for
establishing a Board of Education recognises the
local committees already in existence, and places
them in a position of equality with those local com-
mittees which would in future, according to the re-
commendations here made, be constituted on a terri-
torial basis.

It is obvious that a modification of the plan is
necessary to meet this case, but it does not appear
that the main principle of devoting the funds raised
to the districts where they arise need be abandoned.
The denominational schools now in existence might
be included in districts, the extent of which, would
be determined by the area occupied by the popula-
tion making use of each school.

The proceeds of the rate levied in that district,
together with the fees, would form within certain
limits, the income of the school. In districts, such
as the large towns, where there are two or more
schools in connection with different denomina-
tions, each would have the benefit of the fees received by
it, and the proceeds of the rate might be devoted up
to a certain fixed sum towards the maintenance of
both, and apportioned between them according to
the number of the scholars. Any surplus over this
maximum arising from the rate would then remain
in the Treasury available for educational purposes,
and subject to votes of the Provincial Council.

The maximum receivable on account of each de-
nominational school would, in ordinary cases, vary
according to the number of scholars taught; but it
would come properly within the functions of the
Board to prescribe rules as to the proper conduct of
the schools, the number of masters to be employed
and similar matters, compliance with which would
be a condition of the grant.

Considering the position of independence occupied
by the present schools from the fact that the sites
are under the control of the denominations, and de-
dicated to the special benefit of one section of the
community, it does not appear just or reasonable
that they should possess all the privileges and ad-
vantages of schools in which the whole community
has an equal interest, and over which it has entire
control.

If, on the one hand, the power of the purse enables
the Government to impose conditions on the school
authorities, yet on the other the possession of the
sites enables their possessors to exact exceptional ad-
vantages from the Government, and so far to frustrate
any attempt to make them conform to any general
plan. The Government may indeed withdraw the
money, but the denominations have the power of
closing the school. Thus it may happen, and indeed
it is within the knowledge of the Commission that
such a case has happened, that from reasons founded
more on denominational considerations than on those
which might be supposed likely to influence the